blending images

I am using photoshop 5.0 and looking for a way to get images and or backgrounds to blend naturally together. Generally, what I am think of looks like the image fades into a background color or over top of another image. What I am thinking of can be found on the website www.arthills.com take a look and you'll get a better idea of what I am referring to. Since I am unsure of how to do it, I am unsure of how to call it.

Background image on one layer, the image you want to fade out ( face, car, elephant, whatever...) on another layer on top. Select the top image and then hold down apple key (for windows: control key) then click on the layer. This will selet everything on that layer and draw a marquee line around your image. Then go in the menu under Select and down to feather. A window asks you to put in a number for the Feather Radius. The higher the number the softer and smoother the blend. Then go back into the Select menu and down to Inverse. This will select the opposite of what is currently selected. Then hit delete. This will soften the edge of your image and fade it into the background.

This only works if you have cut out closely around the shape. If not you can use the lasso or polygon lasso to cut away excess surroundings until you are some what close to your image.

Another quick method is to use the Eraser Tool with a very large and very soft brush. Just erase the outer edges of the top image and it appears to blend into the bottom image. Not very accurate but very easy and fast.

More advanced methods use layer masks but it isn't necessary to get just a simple fade.

To get that specific kind of effect, (blend w/ background color)you can try the linear gradient tool...
you can do this by changing the gradient in options to Foreground-to-Background... dont forget to use the eyedropper tool to get the b.g. color...
just edit the gradient to get your desired effect...

(blend w/ another image)
same w/ forkbeard's comment using feather, just try editing it more w/ the eraser tool but lessen the opacity to 30% or less...

Well dross, u can blend the image with the backgroud by doing the following.
1. Put the background and the image on two different layers.
2. Now reduce the opacity of the image upto 30%.
3. U will find the image blending in the background.
4. click on the blur tool (below the rubber) and select the finger from it (keep the pressure 50). Blur the edges of the image.
I suppose this will help u.

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